Bolivia's president gets sworn in for new term

Fri, 01/22/2010 - 09:46 EDT - France24.com - Business

Bolivian President Evo Morales was to be sworn in for a second, five-year term on Friday in a ceremony attended by fellow Latin American leftist leaders including his role model, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.Morales, 50, was taking up the new mandate with almost unlimited power after last year changing Bolivia's constitution to get rid of a one-term presidential limit.

President Evo Morales has warned that he could close the US Embassy in Bolivia as South America's leftist leaders rallied to support him after his presidential plane was re-routed amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board.

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — South America’s leftist leaders rallied to support Bolivian President Evo Morales after his plane was rerouted amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board and demanded an apology from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The presidents of Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela and Uruguay joined Morales in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba late Thursday to address the diplomatic row. Morales used the gathering to warn that he would close the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia if necessary.

Bolivia's leftist president Evo Morales on Saturday accused US intelligence of hacking into the email accounts of top Bolivian officials, saying he had shut his own account down. Latin American leaders have lashed out at Washington over recent revelations of vast surveillance programs, some of which allegedly targeted regional allies and adversaries alike.

PARIS (AP) — French officials denied Wednesday that France refused to let the Bolivian president's plane cross over its airspace amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was aboard. Spain, too, said the plane was free to cross its territory.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced a day of mourning and compared deceased Venezuelian President Chavez to a saint, saying he will “return on resurrection day.”
Chavez died this past week at the age of 58 after succumbing to cancer.
Ahmadinejad said he has “no doubt Chavez will return to Earth together with Jesus and the perfect” Imam Mahdi, the most revered figure of Shiite Muslims, and help “establish peace, justice and kindness” in the world. The Iranian leader said he believes something “suspicious” caused the cancer that killed Chavez.

Reactions to the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were as mixed, polemical and outsized as the leader was in life, with some saying his passing was a tragic loss and others calling it an opportunity for Venezuela to escape his long shadow.
Seen as a hero by some for his anti-U.S. rhetoric and gifts of cut-rate oil, others considered him a bully.

Here’s what we know about Bolivian President Evo Morales’s son, Fidel: He was raised in secret. He may have cost his father a fourth term in office. His mother is in jail. And he doesn’t exist.
At least, he seems not to. No one has been able to confirm that he’s real, and plenty of evidence points to the fact that he isn’t.